Open Forum at Meetings

Rick we allow the H/O's that attend the monthly Board meetings up to five minutes at the end of the meeting to speak on any topic covered in the meeting. If they have a specific question or want to address the Board on a specific item we ask that they contact the MC so they can be put on the agenda. In addition two or three times a year we have "Open Forum" meetings where everyone is welcome, owner or renter to ask questions, make suggestions, complain etc.

Rick,

Every open meeting of the Board, the ARB and at the annual meeting, a place is slotted for new business. This is the appropriate time for everyone to ask any question or voice a concern. Notes are taken during this time frame as the meeting would not of ended and minutes should be kept.

If a member has enough interest to attend a board meeting, they are invited to join in every discussion that is brought up. They don't have a vote, but the ideas gotten from homeowners have offered many good alternatives to various issues.

Hope this helps,

Tim

We have ours at the beginning of the meeting, after the call to order and the security officer's report. It's limited to 10 minutes. We have another session for 5 minutes at the end of the meeting just before adjournment.

To keep things in some sort of order, residents are limited to general comments or questions - not individual maintenance requests or issues concerning delinquencies (those folks NEVER come to meetings anyway). After the forum, we don't take any comments or questions from the floor until the second session.

Hi Rick,

We are townhouse-style condos under a HOA, and, also part of a Master HOA (condos and single family homes). For both HOA boards’ meetings - the open forum at all noticed board meetings is held prior to the call to order. When we send the required notice of meeting to the HOs, with the date, time, location, we also state that an open HO forum is held 15” prior to the start of the board meeting for any HO questions or concerns. We hold the open forum prior to the meeting because when HOs do attend, many do not usually want to sit through the entire meeting.

Our condo HOA meets 7X/year, Master HOA 4X/year (the annual meeting is held same evening as 1 board meeting). No minutes are taken for the HO forum; but when a question is asked or concern raised, the PM will make a note for follow up with the HO.

We have gone over the 15” when needed, but this has occurred only a few times over the past 13 years or so since turnover. When the HO forum is ending, any HOs present are thanked for attending and told that they are welcome to stay and listen as the board conducts their meeting, but that it is not open to their participation. In addition, we have on a few occasions allowed a HO question during the board meeting when someone indicated they had a question.

Our HOA board meetings rarely have HO attendance, though. As a matter of fact, we rarely obtain a quorum for the annual meeting (election) – but that is another issue which has been well discussed on HOATalk.

Hope this helps,
Bonnie

All of our open to the members discussions come after the meetings. Fl. meeting requirement state that any item addressed at the meetings must be on an agenda and posted prior to the meetings.

Any situations or problems which are brought up by the members is normally something that the Board cannot act or vote on during the meeting anyhow without being on the agenda. The open discussions will result in the Board noteing the subject of the discussion and tableing it until further discussions or studying is completed.

And as always, there can possibly be emergency issues which are dealt with immediately after the meeting is ajourned.

And as Glen said, time limit is always an issue when you open up a meeting for general discussion. Some members come to hear what the Board is doing or has to say and want no part of an open forum so it considerate to them to hold the formal meeting first.

Edits:

"Then we also had to "extraneous" attendees,. . . "

Should be:

"Then we also had two "extraneous" attendees,. . . "

We have monthly board meetings, even though we are only required to have one quarterly.

Many experts on organizations have concluded that openness is favorable to good governance. People don't trust actions that occur behind closed doors even if they elect not to attend the open meetings. Florida calls these "sunshine laws"; Arizona "blue sky". All states have adopted Open Meetings and Freedom of Information Acts.

Some states have extended those requirements to owners associations. Below is an excerpt from Florida Law CHAPTER 720, HOMEOWNERS' ASSOCIATIONS

§720.303(2) BOARD MEETINGS.--

(a) A meeting of the board of directors of an association occurs whenever a quorum of the board gathers to conduct association business. All meetings of the board must be open to all members except for meetings between the board and its attorney with respect to proposed or pending litigation where the contents of the discussion would otherwise be governed by the attorney-client privilege. The provisions of this subsection shall also apply to the meetings of any committee or other similar body when a final decision will be made regarding the expenditure of association funds and to meetings of any body vested with the power to approve or disapprove architectural decisions with respect to a specific parcel of residential property owned by a member of the community.

(b) Members have the right to attend all meetings of the board and to speak on any matter placed on the agenda by petition of the voting interests for at least 3 minutes. The association may adopt written reasonable rules expanding the right of members to speak and governing the frequency, duration, and other manner of member statements, which rules must be consistent with this paragraph and may include a sign-up sheet for members wishing to speak. • • •

Given that all states have OM and FOI Acts, it is likely that the same principles will be applied to homeowner association laws as they are enacted and improved.

Florida law requires that owners/members be allowed to speak on any agenda item for 3 minutes, but does not specify when during the meeting. My preference is that the board ask for inputs from owners/members at the beginning of each agenda item and also allow owners/members to speak after the board discussion. This ensures that the board will be advised of any points they may not have included in their discussion. Since the decisions of the board affect the owners/members, they should have the opportunity to express their views. The overall time is controlled by the chair who has the authority to impose the 3-minute limit.

As to a general open forum not limited to the agenda, it could be at the beginning or the end of the meeting. The beginning time may be more predictable for those who don't want to sit through the whole meeting.

As a practical matter. the Board of Commissioners in my county practices what I have described. Any resident can speak on an agenda item during any part of the Board discussion with recognition by the chair. It works fine. Residents respect the opportunity to speak and to be relevant. An Open Forum is also available at the end of the meeting for any subject.

Michael,

Don is referring to the open meeting laws that apply to public bodies. Many people confuse these laws thinking they also apply to HOAs but they do not. Open meeting laws that apply to HOA would be found in the HOA statutes. Many states have no HOA-specific statutes at all; some have only condo statutes and others have statutes for both condos and planned communities. However, even those states that do have HOA statutes do not all have an open meeting law.
AZ, FL and CA are a few that do. I believe the AZ open meeting law is the only one that specifically calls for allowing members the opportunity to speak at a board meeting and also the opportunity to speak before an item is voted on by the board.

AnnaD2's 11/29/2009 4:19 PM post in How much Should One Take of Vocal Criticism? provides an example of the implementation of Florida law described in my 11/16/2009 5:35 PM post.